Environment, Sustainability and Youth - entrepreneurship and development in rural areas

Aims & objectives

The Aim of the course is:
To create general understanding for local communities in rural areas how to use ‘environment’ as a source for employability. To promote innovative ideas for social entrepreneurship related to ‘environment’.

The concrete objectives set for the course are:
• To develop knowledge about environmentally linked enterprises - eco-tourism; bio-agriculture; community development projects; eco-villages etc.
• To motivate young people to establish environment-based local social enterprises.
• To implement field research providing information for possible uses of environment as a sustainable resource for employability (ecology, economy and society).
• To share best practices for management of local environmental enterprises.

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

The group of participants included 24 young people from 6 countries – Sweden, Jordan, Morocco, France, Egypt and Bulgaria.

The trainers team includes two trainers - Ognian Gadoularov (Bulgaria) and Iyad Aljaber (Jordan)

Training methods used & main activities

The methodology of the training course is conceived in ways that require active participation and exchange between participants. It is based on participants’ own experiences and builds on concrete actions for the future. The methodology of the training programme is based on the main principles of experiential learning cycle and non-formal education.
The programme is designed with a logical flow that starts with introduction to concepts and progressively gets into the topic, to end up working on the creation by participants of field research and analyzing collected data. This way, the course will close with a document containing all the information gathered in the training.
Main contents and activities of the project:
1. Study visits to local enterprises in Smolyan region;
2. Training activities and workshops - Sustainable development; Basic concepts of Social entrepreneurship; Tools for field research;
3. Collecting and sharing good practices from the countries of participants;
4. Practical activities - Field research; Collection and analysis of data; Preparing report; Meeting with local administration; Presenting results on public event.;

Outcomes of the activity

Outcomes of the training:
- Generated ides for overcoming local challenges.
- Field research related to establishing environmentally linked enterprises.
- Report with summery of the research and recommendations for local development.
- Manual concluding all data collected, knowledge and outcomes of the training.
- Project ideas developed for future implementation.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was involved sins the creation of the idea of the training, preparation process, applying, implementation and evaluation of the training course.

I worked on this training for 8 days as a full time trainer.